The hidden cost to Dem benefits for migrants as government shutdown continues

As the government shutdown continues, the media seems fixated on one Republican talking point: That the Democrats want health- care benefits for illegal immigrants. Of course they do.

Part of the way Democrats try to claim otherwise is semantics.

For example, President Joe Biden ballooned the number of illegal immigrants with Temporary Protected Status from 400,000 to 1.2 million during his term. TPS-holders have no legal right to live here, but the government has promised not to deport them until their home country resolves what is supposed to be a major destabilizing condition — a natural disaster, for example, although past administrations have tended to grant and renew TPS for far less.

Similarly, President Biden allowed 2.9 million inadmissible migrants to enter the US via “parole,” which, like TPS, gives them a fixed time period to stay before facing removal.

Because these migrants are still considered inadmissible and removable, and their deferred status is temporary, the Department of Homeland Security and outside experts continue to count them as illegal immigrants.

Prior to passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, parolees could access Medicaid after a five-year waiting period, just as legal permanent residents can, and they could also qualify for Obama­care subsidies after one year. TPS holders for their part could access Obamacare subsidies.

Welfare workarounds

The OBBB sunsets all of these privileges, but the Democrats’ proposed budget would restore them. Therefore, the claim that congressional Democrats want to give public health benefits to illegal immigrants is indeed true. They just pretend Biden magically made millions of people “legal” immigrants.

That dispute is minor, however, compared to the broader reality that illegal immigrants already consume public health benefits through other pathways. Perhaps the most obvious is emergency Medicaid. Illegal immigrants who show up in emergency rooms, including expectant mothers, will generally have their health-care expenses covered by federal taxpayers.

Another avenue is state-level programs. California, Illinois and New York are among the approximately 14 states that fund coverage for illegal immigrant children. Some states even provide adult illegal immigrants with health benefits.

The Center for Immigration Studies has found that 59% of households headed by an illegal immigrant consume at least one means-tested benefit, with 39% consuming Medicaid specifically.

Some additional restrictions could help reduce the public health benefits that illegal immigrants receive. Indeed, the House version of the OBBB would have penalized states that offered benefits to illegal immigrants, but this provision was dropped by the Senate.

Enforcement

Still, no set of restrictions can block all such welfare usage. Hospitals will always help people in emergencies, regardless of their immigration status, and the citizen children of illegal immigrants will always be eligible for welfare as long as we have a welfare state.

The ultimate solution to illegal immigrants consuming Medicaid or any other type of welfare is simply to reduce the size of the illegal immigrant population. Fortunately, the Trump administration has shown that controlling the border and deporting people with removal orders is indeed possible. It is those enforcement policies — not simply restrictions on program access — that will ultimately save taxpayers.

Jason Richwine is a resident scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies.